Chris Waller's magnificent galloper was also setting a benchmark for the Australian industry on the global stage, and paying the Cox Plate and the Melbourne Spring Carnival an enormous compliment in the process.

In international ratings due to be released overnight in Europe it is widely tipped that the dual Cox Plate winner will be rated as the world's best horse on turf, ahead of the likes of champion French three year old colt Almanzoor, Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Found, globetrotting superstar and Breeders Cup Turf winner Highland Reel and top three-year-old filly Minding.

Winx, who stretched her consecutive winning streak to 13 with that romp around a windswept Moonee Valley, is expected to get a mark of around 130 for her easy Plate triumph over subsequent Melbourne Cup placegetter Hartnell.

The form received a further boost last Saturday when Awesome Rock, a well beaten fifth in the Cox Plate, stormed home to win the $2 million Emirates Stakes on the final day of the Melbourne Cup carnival.

Black Caviar twice recorded figures of 130 in her days dominating the global sprinting scene, so Winx's exploits to date have brought her to at least that level.

She will, however,  have to improve just a little more to top the highest rating Black Caviar ever received from the handicappers who compile the ratings for the International Federation of Horse Authorities.

That  was a 132 in the calendar year 2011. In that year, amongst other triumphs, Peter Moody's brilliant sprinter humped a weight-carrying record for a mare in the Newmarket Handicap (one of the world's highest rated sprint contests) when she shouldered 58 kilos and saw off the cream of Australia's sprinting crop, in receipt of lumps of weight, by three lengths and  more.

But given that she is still only five and could have more improvement in her the nine-time group 1 winning Winx could bridge that gap and ultimately surpass Black Caviar by this time next year.

The wonder mares: Where does Winx rate ?

Black Caviar was retired undefeated after 25 races. Photo: Brendan Esposito

In the modern era, she ranks very highly. Only Black Caviar's 132 in her stellar year surpasses what Winx has already achived.

If she does get, as expected, the 130 rating, she will be ranked as the equivalent of dual Arc winner Treve and another French mare in Goldikova.

Thierry Jarnet riding Treve to winning the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 2013.  Photo: Getty Images

Treve got her highest score when she won the Arc by five lengths as a three year old in 2013, repeating the feat a year later.

Goldikova was a 1600 metre specialist and an out and out champion in France, the UK and the US.

The Freddie Head-trained mare won the Breeders Cup mile on three successive occasions as well as top class races like the Prix du Moulin and Prix Jacques Le Marois at Longchamp and Deauville respectively as well as the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot. Her peak rating of 130 came in her victory in the Marois in 2009.

Winx looks likely to be rated above such female superstars as Zenyatta, the American mare who won 19 races straight, including two Breeders Cup events,  before losing by a short head to Blame in what was her final race start. Co-incidentally Winx and Zenyatta are both sired by the same stallion, Street Cry.

Zenyatta was rated at 128, as was Zarkava, an Aga Khan owned filly who won the Arc in 2008 and retired with a perfect seven wins from seven starts record. 

Mike Smith celebrates Zenyatta's Breeders' Cup Classic in 2009. Photo: Supplied

A third top mare to share that 128 rating was the German trained Danedream, who scored in England's midsummer classic, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and also won the Arc by five lengths in 2011, setting a race record time.

Winx's performances put her well clear of the likes of Found (who received a classification of 123 after her Arc win in October) and the three-year-old filly Minding, who was named the European horse of the year in the Cartier racing awards in London earlier this week.

Turf v Dirt

Great as Winx's achievements have been she is not, however, likely to be nominated as the top horse in the world as that honour will almost certainly go to one of two American horses who campaign primarily on dirt surfaces.

They are the American trained three-year-old colt Arrogate or the older California Chrome, who had a titanic struggle in the Breeders Cup Classic at Santa Anita, in California, last weekend.

That race, as were several other Breeders Cup events, was run on a dirt track, a surface alien to most horses trained in Europe, Australasia and Asia.

California Chrome had already won the Dubai World Cup on dirt earlier in the year and went into the Classic with a ranking of 132. The Breeders Cup was expected to be a coronation of his status as the best on the planet, but it didn't work out that way.

Arrogate, a three year old owned by Saudi Prince Khaled Abdullah (who also owned the legendary Frankel) wore him down to win by a half length, and thus may be rated fractionally his superior once weight for age allowances are taken into account.

Arrogate had announced himself as a top contender at his penultimate start when he won the Travers Stakes by over 13 lengths in track record time.

But many purists will regard a world top ranked horse who competes primarily on dirt with an asterisk. It is mainly the USA where dirt racing thrives, thus the number of potentially top-class rivals any dirt champion faces is less. Turf gallopers like Winx have a far bigger field of international rivals to see off before they can sit atop the ratings tree.